Kate Brandeis has it all: a famous reporter at the age of twenty-four, she’s the face of the Republic of the Americas. She has a loving fiancé and all the success she could wish for. But when she learns of the death of a long-forgotten friend, her investigations unravel her perfect memories, forcing her to face the fact that she’s been living a lie.

Jackson MacNamera, trained from a young age in the art of mind control, returns to the Republic for his mother’s funeral. Within a few hours of his arrival, authorities collect Jackson and take him by force to a room ironically called The Liberty Box, where he must choose between surrendering his thoughts to the new Republic, or fleeing for his freedom.

Kate, bereaved and confused, finds her way to a cave community of refugees, where Jackson seems to offer her an escape from her grief. The two forge an uneasy bond, and in the process Jackson learns that Kate has some insight which may help the hunters in their attempt to free other citizens from the tyranny of the Potentate. Against the expressed wishes of the Council, the hunters plot a series of daring raids, attempting to prove that not only is freedom possible, but that the citizens are not too far gone to desire it. But with the odds so stacked against them, can the refugees succeed in their rescue missions right under the Potentate’s nose?

Rating: 3/5

REVIEW:

The Liberty Box is an unusual book. This dystopian novel is not your Hunger Games or Divergent. The characters here are older (which makes more sense, I mean c’mon, teenagers saving the world? It was becoming quite boring), and you can defintely classify this into the sci-fi genre.

The book begins with a slightly boring prologue, but it picks up pace when the main story begins. Kate isn’t the best protagonist, but she is unique in her own way. At around 19% into the book, Jackson appears, making things much more interesting.

The book ends with a pretty intelligent cliffhanger. Amidst all the action I didn’t expect the twist, but that’s what made me read the next book.

Overall; this a a good enough start to an adult dystopian trilogy. It has action, romance, science, drama, and truthfully, it was quite enjoyable.

PART 2

The Eden Conspiracy (The Liberty Box #2)

C.A. Gray

Can the truth set you free?

The refugee caves have been destroyed, and most of the refugees are dead. The Potentate now knows of their existence and will stop at nothing to wipe them out completely. He suspects that terrorist Jackson MacNamera is among them, as well as reporter Kate Brandeis’s fiancé, hacker Will Anderson—and probably therefore Kate herself. Now that the Potentate is aware of security threats, most of the strategies the rebels used to get back onto the grid before now no longer work. The Potentate knows the rebels are on foot, and he knows they were at the caves not long ago—they can’t get far.

The remaining rebels, among them Jackson and Kate, have Kate’s fiancé Will to thank for their survival: he arrived back from the dead and in the nick of time, bearing classified information about the Potentate’s plans to expand his influence internationally. But the remaining rebels and the Council cannot agree on whether their top priority should be spreading truth far and wide and freeing as many citizens from government control as possible, knowing that they will likely die in the process—or escaping to New Estonia, in hopes that they might live out the rest of their days in peace.

Kate, meanwhile, finds herself torn: between Jackson and the fiancé she thought she lost, and between the damsel-in-distress she once was, and the rebel she believes she has always been underneath. Whether the other hunters will support her or no, she knows she must use her influence over the people of the Republic to tell them the truth, no matter the cost. But is she strong enough to withstand the government’s lies?

Rating: 3.5/ 5

This book was surprisingly good. I normally find things to become a little boring at the second book of a trilogy, but The Eden Conspiracy was definitely anything but boring.

The twist at the ending of the first book made the second book so much better. Even though these books are from the third person POV, you have alternate chapters from two different perspectives: Jackson’s and Kate’s, making things even better.

The ending of this book too is great, and I can’t wait to read the third book.